Venezuela intercepted a batch of weapons from the USA || Breaking News, 9th of February, 2019

The official representative of the Russian military department, Igor Konashenkov, announced the delivery of a note on the INF treaty issue to the US military attaché in Moscow. According to him, Russia proposes to the United States to destroy the MK-41 universal launchers, deployed on land. Washington was also asked to destroy their target missiles that have characteristics of short and medium-range, ground-based ballistic missiles, said Igor Konashenkov. The US Under Secretary of State for the Arms Control, Andrea Thompson, responded that the United States don’t have plans of deployment of the ground-based cruise missiles in Europe. Additionally the US don’t recognize the violation of the INF treaty by Washington. According to her — the US will take into account the views of the US allies during all the next steps.

The Director of the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in the OSCE, Inhibierg Solrun Gisladottir, expressed her regret over the Ukrainian prohibition that forbids the Russian citizens from participation in the work of the Bureau during the elections of the Ukrainian President — RIA NEWS reports. In her letter to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry she also expressed her “deep disappointment from the adoption of a related law by the Parliament that solidified this restriction”. According to her, this decision is unprecedented, and it contradicts the obligation of all the participating states to invite the observers from any other OSCE participating states to observe the elections. According to the newspaper ‘Kommersant’ — the Russian observers from the Bureau, will arrive in Kiev on 11th of February in order to monitor the presidential elections in Ukraine.

The United States plan to pull their troops from Syria by the end of April — TASS reports with a reference to the Wall Street Journal. It is expected that most of the troops will be pulled by the mid-March. According to the Wall Street Journal — in the near future, the armed groups in Syria, supported by the United States, intend to take the last strongholds of ISIS. In late December, Donald Trump announced his decision to pull the American troops from Syria. He believes that the main task of the military — the destruction of ISIS — has already been completed.

The International Paralympic Committee conditionally restored the membership of the Russian Paralympic Committee. The Russian athletes will be able to perform during the competitions under the flag of their country — TASS quotes the message of the IPC. It was noted that the membership of the RPC will be fully restored from 15th of March, if Russia fulfills a number of requirements. The President of the IPC, Andrew Parsons, announced that RPC should pay compensation to the IPC for the additional doping tests. He also stated that even though the RPC proved to the IPC that their organization changed drastically — they still need to prove it to the rest of the world. According to him, Russia must adhere to the strict criteria. If at least one of the conditions won’t be fulfilled — the decision of the IPC will be revised.

Endes Palencia, the Deputy Minister of the civil self-defense of Venezuela announced that the Venezuelan authorities confiscated a shipment of weapons from the USA — RIA NEWS reports. According to him, the weapons were found in a warehouse of the Valencia International Airport. He added that the weapons were intended for the terrorist groups. Endes Palencia added that the Venezuelan authorities found 19 rifles, 118 rifle magazines, and 90 radios. Earlier, Venezuela announced that the United States are trying to incite the Venezuelan military into treachery.

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roskosmos, announced that the company ‘Energomash’ finished the assembly of the first RD-171MV engine. The engine is designed for the newest Russian medium-class space-rocket «Soyuz-5» — code name «Irtysh». Dmitry Rogozin announced that this rocket engine is the most powerful in the world today. Digital design and production were used in the creation of the RD-171MV. Currently, the engine is being prepared for the fire tests, Dmitry Rogozin added. The space-rocket «Soyuz-5» is planned to be done by 2021. The flight tests of the new rocket are planned for 2022, from the Baikonur cosmo-drome.